“People like us”: Discourse on class identity in residential compounds

Abstract

Residential compounds have become a widespread and popular way of life. Today, we find a great structural and social diversity of compounds. While evidence suggests that living in the most closed settings, such as gated communities, is often linked to the desire of the upper-middle class’s desire to associate with people of similar status, research on what kind of elective belonging can be found among working classes remains limited. This qualitative study analyses how class identity is constructed through interviews with residents and non-residents of upper-middle and working-class compounds in the metropolitan area of Granada. The results indicate that residents of compounds value the development of a sense of belonging more highly, and reproduce it more noticeably in their discourses, than non-residents. Residential compounds appear to function as status drivers, both materially and symbolically, but operate differently depending on the social composition of the compounds themselves.